Commentarieshttp://jacket2.org/commentaries/archive/109
enThe present is fleet and we never have it anywayhttp://jacket2.org/commentary/present-fleet-and-we-never-have-it-anyway
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<h3 class="subtitle">Lawrence Giffin&#039;s &#039;Ex Tempore&#039;</h3> </div>
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<figure><img src="http://jacket2.org/sites/jacket2.org/files/imagecache/wide_main_column/Screen shot 2014-04-15 at 4.34.17 PM.png" alt="" title="" class="imagecache imagecache-wide_main_column" /></figure> </div>
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<p>Time. It seems always in deficiency when we catch up with friends. We speak colloquially of needing more of it — “Where has the time gone?” It runs off when we aren’t looking. But what if we <em>were</em>&nbsp;to look at it, relentlessly, with nearly unblinking attention? Could we hold onto it then?&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p>Lawrence Giffin’s <a href="http://trollthread.tumblr.com/post/14072670419/lawrence-giffin-ex-tempore-troll-thread-2011" target="_blank"><em>Ex Tempore</em>&nbsp;(TROLLTHREAD 2011)</a> seeks to attend to time by capturing the constantly transient instant of composition. </p>
<p><a href="http://jacket2.org/commentary/present-fleet-and-we-never-have-it-anyway" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Lawrence Giffinproduction of timetrollthreadTue, 15 Apr 2014 20:48:09 +0000sueyeun9125 at http://jacket2.orgInto motions and relations: Metonic cycles with Myung Mi Kimhttp://jacket2.org/commentary/motions-and-relations-metonic-cycles-myung-mi-kim
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<h3 class="subtitle">What won&#039;t subsume because time doesn&#039;t stand still</h3> </div>
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<figure><img src="http://jacket2.org/sites/jacket2.org/files/imagecache/wide_main_column/440px-Antikythera_mechanism.svg__0.png" alt="" title="Schematic for the back of the Antikythera mechanism" class="imagecache imagecache-wide_main_column" /><figcaption>Schematic for the back of the Antikythera mechanism</figcaption></figure> </div>
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<p><img src="/sites/jacket2.org/files/commentary-images/lamenta315MMK.JPG" alt="Lamenta 315" height="0" width="0" />“Lamenta,” the longest series in Myung Mi Kim’s fourth collection, <a href="http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520231443" target="_blank"><em>Commons </em>(2002)</a>, is structured after the metonic cycle, a calendrical unit of nineteen years. A lunisolar measure, the metonic cycle encapsulates the notions of simultaneity, equivalence, and difference. It is the “period of whole days over which the visible lunar and solar periods almost resynchronize” (<em>Dictionary of Weights and Measures</em>). This re-synchronization suggests a confluence between two different measures of time, which can be identified without subsuming one order of measure into the other. Importantly, there is a remainder when these two cycles nearly meet: “the difference between the 236 synodic months and 19 mean tropical years is barely two hours.” A portion always exceeds. </p>
<p><a href="http://jacket2.org/commentary/motions-and-relations-metonic-cycles-myung-mi-kim" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Asian American poetryCommonsknowledgeLamentametonic cycleMyung Mi Kimproduction of timeSat, 29 Mar 2014 16:10:35 +0000sueyeun9074 at http://jacket2.orgErasing the third dimensionhttp://jacket2.org/commentary/erasing-third-dimension
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<h3 class="subtitle">Tan Lin&#039;s moving &#039;Echo&#039;</h3> </div>
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<figure><img src="http://jacket2.org/sites/jacket2.org/files/imagecache/wide_main_column/Screen shot 2014-03-17 at 12.33.52 AM.png" alt="" title="" class="imagecache imagecache-wide_main_column" /></figure> </div>
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<p>One of the ways an experience of time is produced in poetic contexts requires engaging our body's memories, such as how we hear a sound. The way sound decays in a space, or how it moves and dimishes across a duration of time, engages our ability to take note of the unfurling present moment. It's a particular attention, fixated on a deeply embodied phenomenon that reinvigorates our ability to locate ourselves in the world. To invoke a sound is to invoke the body in present time.&nbsp;</p>
<p>I find this link between sound, the present, and the body richly explored by Tan Lin's digital poem,<a href="http://www.ubu.com/contemp/lin/lin1.html" target="_blank">&nbsp;“Echo,” archived at UbuWeb</a>.&nbsp;An echo reflects sound waves back to the listener, often in a diminished manner.</p>
<p><a href="http://jacket2.org/commentary/erasing-third-dimension" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Asian American poetrydigital poemEchoproduction of timesoundTan LinUbuWebMon, 17 Mar 2014 04:36:31 +0000sueyeun9045 at http://jacket2.org